1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to an automated sales system. Specifically this invention is directed to a tool for augmentation of sales and marketing capabilities of travel agency personnel in conjunction with computerized airline reservation systems. Travel agents are able to synergistically compose individual customized sales presentations and itineraries for their clients, representing thousands of tour destinations and criteria, from multiple permutations of data sources in a fully automated fashion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
During the 1980s airline reservation systems evolved into very sophisticated information networks. A majority of travel agencies in North America subscribe to one of the major computerized reservations systems; Sabre, Apollo, System One, Datas II or PARS. Prior to the development of computerized reservations systems in the 1970s, a travel agent would read airline schedules from either the North American or International edition of official Airline Guides (OAG), printed directories which are published monthly, then telephone the specific airline to reserve and confirm passenger flights and physically write the airline tickets. The advent of computerized reservations systems allowed the travel agent to access computerized travel data banks, reserve, confirm and transact airline, hotel or car rental reservations with a workstation comprised of; keyboard for entry of customer requirements in conjunction with a display terminal and ticket printer, connected to the centralized reservation service. The Mar. 19, 1985 testimony of Robert L. Crandall, President of American Airlines, Inc., before the Aviation Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation details the evolution of computerized reservations systems in the United States.
Travel agency employees, who produce approximately seventy-five percent of the computerized reservations systems volume, now enjoy a more productive and accurate means to process reservations, an important part of their service functions. A simultaneous sector of a travel agent's employment is the ability to promote, advise, select and sell appropriate travel and tour destinations for their clients. Agencies generate approximately fifty percent of car rental bookings, seventy percent of domestic air travel sales and ninety percent of international flights.
Travel agents sell nearly ninety percent of all cruise line bookings and virtually ninety percent of all tour packages. This business represents the most profitable segment of the multibillion dollar travel agency sales volume, since higher commissions are earned on tour/cruise bookings as compared with point-to-point airline ticketing. The ability of a travel agent to effectively consult with their clients depends upon several factors including; knowledge of the destination, familiarization tours the agent may have taken to the area, attendance at travel/tour seminars and conferences and reading reference literature such as Fordor's travel publications.
A travel professional accumulates extensive knowledge which is extremely valuable to the travel agency business and is in fact the single most important element which differentiates one agent from another. Unfortunately this knowledge requires years of experience to acquire. The physical requirements to visit and inspect even a portion of popular tourist destinations dictates a significant investment of time and monetary expense. Additionally, tourist localities are seldom static; new hotels or attractions and changing custom regulations require a constant monitoring of hundreds of potential vacation sites.
The current state-of-the-art of the tour, cruise and vacation segment is similar in many respects to the precomputerized reservations systems airline era. A travel agent must consult several directories; i.e. Hotel and Travel Index, OAG Travel Planner, OAG Worldwide Tour Guide or OAG Worldwide Cruise and Shipline Guides and scores of travel brochures in an attempt to offer the client information for an informed travel decision. Most of these directories are published quarterly so therefore prices or schedules are frequently out-of-date and inaccurate. If the client is conferring in person, with the agent in the office, this task is complicated by the reliance on numerous publications to describe a particular vacation. This often results in a time-consuming, disorganized and ineffective sales presentation since each client's itinerary has different requirements. Answering a client's questions is dependent upon the knowledge a travel agent has acquired. Since `travel` is an intangible product, the communicative skills of the travel agent are paramount to success. The client relies on the travel agent's advice in making important vacation decisions.
Several specialized tour planning concepts emerged in the 1970s including publications such as Fishing Resorts of The World, which presented sportfishing tour packages in an organized and informative manner and audio-visual presentations of tour destinations such as TRAVEL-VISION which were linear in design. These travel marketing concepts, both created by applicant, had inherent limitations as discussed herein.
The travel industry, comprising 33,000 agencies, does not sell a single mass market product, but rather is a reflection of the population as a whole with its infinite individual customer profiles of demographic, regional and fields of special interest. One client may desire information on a river-rafting tour in Wyoming while the next customer needs assistance in planning an art tour of Paris, France. Therefore, it is imperative that the travel agent have available a wide variety of information in an organized system which allows convenient and standardized access for both the agent and client.
A recent study of the American labor force, Work Force 2000: Work and Workers for the Twenty-first Century, commissioned by the United States Department of Labor, indicates serious shortages of skilled workers in the service sector economy will impact the United States during the 1990s and into the next century. In addition to labor shortages in many skilled service sector industries, it is predicted that a mismatch of employee skills to available jobs will result in a shrinking labor pool of skilled workers which will inevitably increase wages. Travel agency functions are predominantly labor intensive, therefore labor shortages of skilled workers will significantly impact the quality of service they provide.
All travel agencies essentially market the same products and represent the same suppliers, therefore as a service sector industry it is incumbent that individual sales skills and support systems be as comprehensive and efficient as possible. Since the travel industry is highly dependent upon knowledgeable professionals, requiring years of experience, it portends that a more efficient travel/tour sales and training system be implemented to compensate and increase the productivity of the travel agent.
Thus, there is a continuing need to provide the means to assist travel agency personnel and their clients with a more responsive and efficient; educational, training, sales and service system. SUMMARY OF THE INVENT
Accordingly the objects of this invention, among others are to:
enhance the travel agent's sales ability and professional knowledge of travel and tour destinations in conjunction with computerized reservation systems;
create a flexible travel sales system responsive to multiple applications and configurations;
organize a variety of traditional travel and tour references in a comprehensive and synergistic multi@media sales system to effectuate consumer awareness;
increase the sales productivity and information accuracy of vacation tour packages sold by travel agents;
develop individualized tour planning programs for clients presented in a more effective communication's medium;
reduce travel agent dependency on outdated travel directories, tour manuals and traditional brochures;
provide a consistent in-house teaching and training system for travel agency personnel; and
offer travel suppliers and tour operators an enhanced and efficient means to present their products and to communicate with potential customers when selecting vacation destinations.
These and other objects are achieved by the preferred embodiment of the invention which is directed to a means for automatically creating and displaying customized travel and tour sales presentations from various data sources managed by a multiplicity of operating programs. Sales presentations comprise audio-visual data sources and computerized reservation system information, presented individually or in combination.
Individualized sales presentations are requested by the client for specific destinations. The organizational hierarchy of data sources is arranged so that a infinite number of sales presentation configurations can be displayed. Multiple operating programs create the sales presentations directed by:
(1) Client profiles stored on optical memory or smart cards; PA1 (2) Travel agent assessment of client profiles; or PA1 (3) Computerized reservation system response to client profiles.
The travel agent interviews the client and determines the general information required for accessing the sales system and enters the prerequisites such as; destination, tour costs, sports activities, accommodations and other factors necessary for generation of customized mini-travelogues. The selected factors are analyzed by the operating program based upon an organizational hierarchy of travel specifications which activates the data sources and a customized sequence is presented. Sales presentations can be accessed interactively, one display frame at a time with a decision point at each juncture, or by analysis of the client's profile which generates a coded operating program sequence to display a continuous customized presentation. Additionally, a combination of either interactive or coded program modalities can be presented. A client may wish to preview a destination in an interactive sequence and upon deciding that the tourist destination is in fact the one he desires, could proceed with an operating program from the input of client characteristics. This alternating procedure allows greater comprehension and sales flexibility.
Operating programs select the presentation chapter segments from either the audio-visual data source repository or the computerized reservation system and arrange them in an orderly and predetermined sequence. The sales presentations incorporate proven `need satisfaction selling` including: probing, supporting and closing techniques. This assures a maximum sales effort on behalf of the travel industry. Clients are both creators and viewers of the mini-travelogues which are specifically addressing their needs while simultaneously assisting the travel agent in a comprehensive sales effort.